Democratic politicians and figures including Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman who was shot in the head outside a Tucson, Ariz. supermarket in 2011, said Obama's plan was a step forward for the country.

Celebrities like Amy Schumer tweeted their support of stronger gun control initiatives. Schumer became a spoken advocate of gun control in 2015 after three people were killed in a shooting during a screening of her movie Trainwreck.

Mark Barden, a father of one of the victims in the Newtown shooting and the person who introduced President Obama at Tuesday's event, expressed his support for the president's initiatives. "Today, the President is doing what is in his power to reduce the unspeakable violence that stole our son from us," Barden wrote. "If we can take just one action that will prevent another child from dying the way he did, then we will do honor to the way he lived his life."